Maiden Motostar win for Woodhouse teen Taz

Sports Reporter

It was a fantastic weekend for Mansfield Woodhouse teenager Taz Taylor at the second round of the HEL Performance Motostar British Championship at the Brands Hatch Indy Circuit.

The 17-year-old secured his first ever Motostar race win on Saturday in only his third race riding a Moto3 bike, followed by a very close second during the race on Sunday.

Taylor said: “It was another great weekend and the first race was brilliant, to win and by that much was a great feeling. It was a huge credit to everyone that supports and helps me all year and to take my first ever Moto3 win was a great feeling.

“The second race I was pushed from start to finish. We both really wanted it and both pushed hard to get the win. It was good and we pushed each other to ride better.

“It was tough in the closing laps with the back markers, as there were a lot of them so we had to be careful on which lines we were taking.

“I was so close to the win, but I know it’s a long season and I will continue to work as hard as possible to get some strong results. Thanks again to all my family and all my sponsors, I can’t wait to get to Oulton Park now.”

Taylor, racing for the RS Racing team on a KTM, had an awesome practice and qualifying sessions and ended up setting pole position by 0.3secs.

In the first race on Saturday the youngster got a fantastic start for the 15-lap race, he proceeded to totally dominate the race from start to finish taking the win from former Moto3 World Championship rider Scott Deroue by 5.6 seconds.

In race two he started once again from pole position for the 18-lap lap race, and was once again super quick off the line and led into the first turn.

He again fought hard and rode a stunning race, but Scott Deroue was on a mission and was hounding Taylor throughout the race.

On lap eight Taylor ran wide which allowed Deroue to sneak underneath him. He chased him down for a few laps and re-took the lead by lap 11. They swapped places again for another lap before Taylor led for the closing laps of the races.

The race was full of back markers and both him and Deroue had to ensure they made safe passes on these in the final laps of the race.

Taylor was pushed wide into turn one on the last lap and this allowed Deroue to push his way through. Elbow to elbow into turn two, the pair were fighting to the end, Deroue finally winning the race by only 0.05secs.